Issue 2: Angel Saves Judith
by BeepBeepImmaPangolin9
Summary: Angel and his friends go into a bad yet abandoned neighborhood to explore, but they found Overwatch on a mission there and Genji and Winston were in trouble. Angel's squad saves Judith who then helps them save Winston and Genji. Judith is an omnic fairy who just wants humans and omnics to get along
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Waiting to Party

Aww yeah it's my birthday today ! We are gonna have so many friends at our party I can't wait! Maybe we'll finally get phones! We could trend on and we'll be the coolest people ever!

Ashley got up before me again I hear her in the hallway! I'll never be the first awake. Mom's still asleep and dad still travels the world doing Overwatch things. I grab my plastic katana and go into the living room pretending to kill omnics.

Ashley smirks raising an eyebrow, "You do realize omnics aren't going to be afraid of an 8 year old kid right?"

"Oh come on I'm just having fun! Ha!" I fake slash her and she's laughing with me.

She shrugs her shoulders and leans back on the couch saying, "Happy birthday brother!"

"Happy birthday sis."

Looks like she has an idea, "Hey let's watch Steven Universe! I don't mean like the usual one like the original from I think the 10's. There's just something different about old cartoons."

My sister hops onto the couch and I make muddy buddies in the kitchen. I step onto a chair then onto the counter, push mom's oolong white and green teas out of the way and I grab the confectioner's sugar, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and vanilla.

Yay I can reach the measuring cups! With a stepstool but still and I put a cup of chocolate half cup of peanut butter and quarter cup of butter in a bowl, and it all goes into the microwave for a minute. Mmm the smells blend oh so well together! I stir, pour in a teaspoon of vanilla, stir, climb back onto the chair to grab the corn Chex. Oh looks like Ashley's here.

"Angel what are you…wow you're making those! Nice!"

After turning I see her put her finger in the mix. "Sis! Wait until it's done okay!"

After licking the mix off her finger she tells me, "Make me."

I can't blame her though it's soooo good! She didn't even eat that much.

I put everything into a bag that I shake by the way and finally Ashley adds in the cup and a half of confectioner's sugar. Ashley and I scoop our fingers into the bowl licking the mix. Mmm, it's so good!

I pour them into a bowl and we go from the kitchen into the living room and we look out into the sunrise. It's so pretty how the pinks and oranges blanket the palms and houses.

Ashley tugs on the shoulder sleeve of my pajama top, "Hey Angel how about we grab pillows?"

She seriously has the best ideas so we grab pillows from everywhere we can to make the couch extra comfy and making a fun fort. I also bring out my plushies. There's a pangolin, turtle, sloth, koala, cat, dragon, bunny, and a couple of plushy dolls join us.

We watch Star Verse the Forces of Evil and kinda like it. Mmm these muddy buddies are so good! I lie down putting my feet on the coffee table placing the keyboard on my lap asking sis if she wants to watch anything. "Hmmm, Coraline looks interesting! I read the book on mom's tablet!"

We watch Coraline and my gosh it's so good! Mom gets up and walks in on us during the part the mice are doing circus stuff.

"Wow kids I didn't know you two were into classic movies!"

"Oh mom! Of course if they're good."

"You made popcorn? Mmm thanks I'm having some!"

I lift the bowl up to her and she likes it I'm so proud of myself! "Mmm delicious! Oh you two will love your birthday!"

Ashley excitedly moves back on the couch, her feet just barely off it. She looks up to mom clasping her hands asking, "Is dad coming over and will we get phones?"

Mom smiles as if she's holding a secret. Oh come on mom the suspense is killing us!

She sits with us and finishes watching Coraline.

"I can't believe you're watching something this old! If it's old enough I guess it's kinda different. I wonder if there are any differences between this one and the reboot?"

Ashley's resting her head in her arms on the back of the couch. She walks to the front and tells mom with her hands on her hips. "I'd look it up for you if I had a phone!"

She then looks at her phone then back at Ashley and me, "Nice try! Besides do you know how much of your college money we'd have to spend if I got you two phones?"

Ashley looks up to her with dog eyes and sort of whining, "But mom! Phones will help us with our grades! And we won't always have to ask you to search things for us!"

Mom has a sly smile and look in her eye, but trying not to look like she agrees with us. "If you're good you can have phones."

Mom then sits on the couch with us, grabs a couple of muddy buddies from my bowl, puts the koala plush on her lap, and points at the screen making her I've got something to say face.

I look up to her, blinking with my hands clasped. "Can I get a guitar please? I can get a scholarship if I can play good! I'd be so much funner than martial arts lessons! And Angel has the guitar from dad's friend please! We can start a band with our friends!"

She rubs her chin, "You know something..."

Oh yes!

She continues, "I do know you can for being good with a violin!"

Sigh, "Never mind."

I feel myself sink into the couch with disappointment crossing my arms. Meh, it was worth a try. Maybe Winston has a guitar somewhere?

"Oh, in the last remake the other mom appears on Coraline's real world Snapchat friend's list and came into the real world through the camera."

With a joking tone mom says. "You know I could get you guys training wheels again!"

Ashley looks up to her, palm up, and with a I like you but you said something silly tone, "Mom…that sounds terrible."

We finish watching the movie then mom suggests we take a walk through the neighborhood. I shake my shoes and no scorpions come out as usual. We wait for Ashley and we're off!

When we get home dad Facetimes mom and we talk to him yay!

"Hi kids happy birthday! I hope you're excited but you wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't come right?"

I feel sad. "Oh no dad you promised you'd make it!"

"Sorry Angel, I just have a really important mission. Please don't feel too bad I'll make it up to you I swear!"

Ashley rubs her chin going, "Hmm...I didn't know a boulevard we recognize was in Switzerland too!"

Dad looks around himself, "Oh…no this is like just a part of Switzerland that looks like that!"

"The stores being in the same places really dad?"

I then get excited, "Oh so you are nearby! Yay dad's gonna make it!"

Dad smiles, "I have to go it was nice talking to all of you!"

I'm about to put my laundry in the washing machine but mom stops me, "It's your birthday take a break from your chores for today okay?"

I enthusiastically say, "Glady!"


	2. Chapter 2: Our Birthday Party

It's 11 in the morning and yay everything is ready for us! Other neighborhood kids will be here. Ashley and I have class with many of them and there are girls from Ashley's cheer squad here. They grab tacos, burritos, burgers, xochitl nachos with melted cheese, and toppings such as sriracha my gosh I can smell it from here!

I know I'm lactose intolerant but I don't care I need those cheesy burritos! Even if they weren't labeled you can kinda tell the chili with sesame oil burgers from the plain from the smell and how they feel like they're coming apart more. It has just the right amount of Thai dragon pepper too. It's like so hot like you need to use very little of it but when you do it's like so good!

There's also garlic sauce, a big bag of plain Lays, sour cream and onion Lays, a bottle of Cactus Cooler, and aloe vera drinks that aren't soda in the cooler. A bowl of ground beef marinated in chili oil, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil while another was cooked in the usual taco seasoning way. We also made burgers with it. Of course we still have plain.

We don't usually eat this much! We usually eat much healthier but today's a special day, our birthday.

I grab my toy sword and challenge Carlos to a pretend fight, "I'm so going to kick your omnic butt!"

He pumps his nerf gun, "Nuh uh! Machines are meant to rule!"

I'm chasing Carlos and we're both laughing. He's fat so he's already gassed. He's leaning making a T with his hands. "Time."

Carlos is a really good friend of ours. He's so nice and always make us laugh. He may be fat but we like and accept him anyway. He's such a goofball and can be so random sometimes.

Ashley then does an aerial but doesn't really stick it, gets her balance again then cartwheels, and stands there smiling, "I wanna play too!"

She tilts her head and quickly moves her fingers, "I'm the fairy princess of the cheerleaders and we're going to make the omnics pretty and so nice to everyone!"

I tell her, "Nuh uh omnics can't do that!"

Her friend Isabella blinks a couple of times, "Aww come on let the fairies help you!"

"Ugh, fine."

I look at my friend Jacob pointing my sword at him, "I Genji will destroy you rarrrr!"

"What did I do! I'm on your side!"

Mom looks over and yells to me, "Angel! Don't hit your friends it's not nice!"

"But mom it doesn't even hurt!"

They look like they're having fun! I ask my friends. "Abby's getting ready for kickball wanna come with me?"

I go over to them and they're getting ready for kickball.

A boy who looks kinda big suggests, "How about boys vs. girls?"

Abby tells him, "No offense but that sounds dumb, we can pick."

"With you as captain?"

"Heh, yeah!"

I yell over to Ashley and ask her to play kickball with us.

I've heard rumors about her, not bad ones though but that she goes to the Shaolin Temple in our town. She's also captain of the soccer team, the boy's soccer team and is better than everyone at every sport. Her double dutch braids, comfortable looking tennis shoes, dark gray athletic shorts, and sky blue tee that matches her eyes mean she really wants to play yard games.

Abby suggests, "I know! The birthday twins can be captains!"

It's Ashley's turn to pick after the coin toss and she chooses Isabella. I choose Jacob, she takes Carlos, and I take Abby, and we keep picking down the line.

A boy asks Abby. "Who are you? I'm not here too often I'm Jacob's friend."

She tells him. "I'm Abby and I'm 7."

When it's Abby's turn to kick she sends the ball so far. A boy sounding impressed and awed says, "Wow that kick was good for anybody!"

We all run from base to base. Abby is so pro!

Abby's eyes shift back and forth, lowering her voice as if she's telling me a forbidden secret, "Did you know there's an omnium like 20 minutes north of here? That's 20 minutes in biking time."

Dad is in Overwatch so of course I know, "No way! We so have to check it out!"

Abby then asks, "Do you like adventures?"

My gosh! "Heck yeah it's so fun! You'll never know what you'll find and you feel closer to your friends, but it can be scary too."

Jacob excitedly tells us, "Does anyone wanna check out the omnium rumor sometime with me? We could find scary monsters!"

Oh no, I have to tell him, "Are you crazy Jacob!? You sound a bit too excited. I know I kinda feel funny about it too."

Ashley then asks him. "But didn't you move from Brooklyn because omnics attacked?"

Jacob shrugs and says. "Yeah but like literally no one sees your omnics."

Ashley taps me on the shoulder, "My friends are playing hopscotch if you'd like to join us."

My sister is so good at this game! "Yeah I'll play."

I look over to a couple of my friends, "You're coming with us right?"

"Of course we are!"

One of my sister's friends from cheerleading is showing us her coloring book app.

Ashley says, "Wow, Aliyah slays!"

"Thank you!"

I see a car pulling up…it's dads aaaaahhhhh he's here I'm like so shook right now! A huge ivory white SUV with a pearlish shimmer is parking too. I wonder who it is?

He's so short for a grownup…is that Torb? He hops out of the SUV's driver seat, putting his pedal extender and wedge cushion aside, hops out, and his squad dabs with him perfectly timed.

Ashley facepalms, "No! No dabbing that's so lame!"

He has a big grin on his face as he rushes towards us. He gives Ashley and me a hug and says, "There you are birthday twins! My how you've two grown!"

He gets up looking back at us, "Thanks to your daddy over here I didn't get go to jail!"

Dad looks down at him. "Oh, it was nothing really. I know you didn't mean to hurt them with your turret, that omnic's armor just made his skin bouncy so the turret's bullet bounced and hitted that person."

Torb grabs a soda and dips his nachos in salsa and puts grated Mexican cheese and sriracha sauce on his beef taco with chili paste and dark sesame oil, and says with a sigh looking at dad, "Ugh I can't stand those omnics! I weep whenever I think of all the lives we couldn't save."

Torb sheds a tear and sniffs, "My work rebuilding has been going nicely."

Dad looks down at him frowning. He squats a little leaning forward, "It's okay Torb you did what you could. I'm sorry if I brought back any painful memories to you. I still miss my brother you know, 8 years ago Talon sigh...I don't wanna think about it. I just know they're working for someone!"

Torb looks up to him, "Thanks, I miss Gabriel too. He worked so hard and was like so proud of his Blackwatch work! Although he was kinda sad he couldn't work with the rest of us so he felt left out."

Dad grins and squats down looking at me and Ashley, "We have even more surprise guests."

"Who?"

"You'll see."

Torb grabs a burrito with lots of beef, cheese, and sriracha while his squad also grabs our delicious snacks.

Mom whispers to me, "Torb's going to give himself really bad indigestion with all that cheese!"

She then stands up with her fists resting on her hips saying proudly, "I'm so glad we made enough food for everyone!"

Torb belches, "Excuse me."

Dad then whispers to me and Ashley, "See? Your mom is an amazing cook!"

Dad squats down, teasingly telling us, "I have a surprise for you two."

Oh my gosh are those? I rub my eyes and blink. "No way!"

Ashley has a you got a big present look on her face and we look at each other. Aaaahh this is like way too good! We rush over to dad and open our presents and we got phones!

"Your mother and I feel like you're ready to have these. We will teach you how to stay safe on these like I mean I'm pretty sure your school did too but yeah just to make sure."

Ashley looks at me with her eyes gleaming and forcing herself to stay still, "After adding everyone I love to Snapchat I'm so downloading that game my friend told me about!"

Isabella is still playing on her phone. More of her eyes show and her mouth is open in shock, "I can't believe it why can't I ever beat this rank!? Look at the leaderboard I bet Hana Song waste all her time playing this stupid thing all day!"

For now I'm just watching YouTube using dad's profile everything at the house is either on his or mom's accounts so I'm going to make my own account later…hmm, anything good? All these channels seem like boring news videos and other grownup stuff like seriously dad why can't you sub to anything fun?

Hmm…what should I search? Oh Frozen 3's reboot!

"This has been blocked in your country due to copyright."

Ugh!

I watch a funny prank channel and watch it after a Playtex Sport ad plays with gymnasts. Oh my…gosh the look on the mall cop's face ha ha! They actually thought omnics were going to invade the mall! I mean they could but my gosh that was too good! He's screaming now?

"Oh no…please don't tell me Reaper is going to kill him!?"

Dad puts his hand on my shoulder smiling, "Do you actually think if he died like there wouldn't be a story about it? People I work with met the real thing you know. Like really you have like no idea how annoying it is seeing him get away so much!"

Dad sighs, "And so did your uncle. People still think Reaper was the one who killed your uncle Gabe."

The man takes off his mask, the mall cop is on the floor, his body quivering in fear and crying.

"Oh come on!" He offers his hand helping him stand.

Oh I know, DIY stuff!

An ad plays, "An Ipsy Glam bag just for you!"

We watch the first two DIY projects then continue playing.

We finish watching it then we see another ad, "Little Lungs in a great big world!"

I don't like smoke. I just hope people listen to the ad I'm lucky enough not to really know anyone who does. Wow so that's how you make unicorn glitter slime! Then it goes to making DIY phone cases and ice packs. These are like the cutest cases ever! Ahh!

Dad is looking over my shoulder smirking, "You won't want to make that slime…trust me!"

But dad I so do! What's that in the…"Oh my gosh look a spaceship!"

Everyone is looking up, a few people with their feet in the pool, others talk with each other at the snack table…and the spaceship lands in our backyard. There's a gorilla? Alien gorillas this is so funny! He's adjusting his glasses.

"So where are the birthday kids?"

He excitedly looks at my dad, "Hey Abraham how are you old friend!"

"I'm good thank you Winston. I still miss Gabe so much though."

"I wasn't there when he died but everyone says he was such a wonderful guy!"

Our cousins Jamal Tyrone and Maurice and aunt Shanice hug each other then Shanice tells Winston, "He was! I mean who could just steal a father away from their kids like that?"

Winston looks down, "And I missed out on an amazing friend. Jack still takes his bestie's death very hard. He told me he lied in bed for 3 days because he was so sad."

Dad's friend Jack comes out of the spaceship too. "It's true I was."

He sniffs then sheds a tear. He then grabs a handful of tortilla chips and dips it in the ghost pepper sauce and bites a watermelon slice.

Winston then pulls a box out of his pocket, "I uhh, got you something!"

Jack smiles at us, "It's from outer space too!"

I open it and…it's slime! It's so gooey and stretchy and changes colors so much! It even changed into a color I've never even seen!

Winston adjusts his glasses, "Umm, you know it's quite funny how I got it. Your dad called me and wanted to know what I should get you and he said slime. I know Earth umm, like doesn't really do slime well so I visited a Zerg planet that's like so far away it took an hour to fly my spaceship there or whatever."

He takes a sip of his drink. "So yeah, umm, they were like sorry we don't have any but we know this mall 10 galaxies away so I went there and bought the slime! The whole trip took like 3 hours so I brought one of my besties Jack Morrison with me so we could keep each other company exploring together. Oh you should have seen how fancy their mall was! The clothes were so cute! Jack even bought exotic scented cologne for himself I mean wow umm, so yeah it smells amazing. Kind of like sandalwood and cedar but with aromas Earth doesn't even have."

Jack squats down, smiles, and looks at me and Ashley, "You know kids Uncle Winston here built that spaceship!"

Winston looks down smiling, "Oh it was nothing! Besides Athena did most of the work. She's the AI."

Isabella's widened in shock then sighed with disappointment, "I can't believe this every time I'm about to rank up I literally always fall again!"

Winston asks if he can see her phone, "Hmm, you're much better than me at this game but then again I'm just a dumb monkey! You're way smarter than me!"

Isabella looks up at Winston and smiles, "Thanks but aren't you a scientist?"

Winston smiles and giggles a little. "Is anything here vegetarian?"

Mom brings Winston a bag of unopened Lays.

Winston and Jack whisper to each other. I can tell they're really good friends.

Winston then tells everyone, "Oh, by the way you never saw me as a gorilla." He blows dust at our faces.

Carlos says, "Wow Overwatch has like the coolest spaceship! What's a Zerg?"

Isabella scratches her head, "Why did I think that guy in the lab coat was a gorilla ha ha! Why am I so dizzy?"

And everyone remembers him as a human…except for my sister and me. Huh I wonder why.


	3. Chapter 3: Training With Winston

Chapter 3: Training With Winston

A week after our birthday party I'm in the kitchen and overhear dad Facetiming Genji and Genji tells him, "Sounds like you're going to have an omnic problem. I'll call Reinhardt and we can take care of it."

Aaaahhh! I'm going to ask Ashley if she wants to spy on mom and dad's friends with me. They're going to know we're missing, our friend's parents all know each other.

Ashley's in the living room and I join her and tell her, "Ugh! I can't believe we have aikido lessons today!"

"Tell me about it. I still have cheer tutoring too. I mean I like cheer but I just wanna play."

"Me too sis."

Ashley and I walk up to mom and dad and she tells them, "Hi...Angel and I have been keeping everything clean! Well not the pool because that's just because you don't want us touching the chlorine. Anyway do you like it?"

Mom quickly turns in her chair smiling her nice try smile, "I appreciate what you two have done with the place, but you're still going to aikido. You'll thank me later."

I tell her, "But we had tiger kung fu yesterday and taekwondo before that!"

Dad pulls his foot farther back on his leg then uncrosses his arms and clasps his hands leaning forward to us. "I know you don't like working so much but you two are very special! The world is always being threatened and needs people like us to help them. Between Talon omnics and others you really should learn martial arts. Besides who knows you should learn self defense anyway."

Dad drives us to Winston's house. Winston is still wearing his lab coat. Shouldn't he have changed into a gi by now?

Dad tells us, "Good luck with practice and behave yourselves!"

We walk into Winston's living room, if you can call it that. It looks more like a dojo with darkish blue mats covering most of the floor which is so cool. A display case shows pictures of a baby gorilla and a sciency looking guy with a window showing them on the moon, and Winston training with other Overwatch agents, like Ana and Genji. There's also a water cooler against the wall and water bottles cover his dining room table. The dojo room connects to the kitchen and dining room.

Winston enthusiastically greets us tapping his feet and grinning widely. He's drinking his usual cup of tie luo han tea, "Hi there! Are you ready for today's training?"

"We are. Thank you."

After Winston changes into his gi he teaches us shrimping.

"To shrimp you need to roll onto your shoulder so your other hand would be freer in case you need it." He says as he lies on his side.

He continues showing us what he's describing, "Then you straighten your leg then your other foot is behind it on the ground. You quickly push your foot into the ground extending your leg ending and that's the shrimp."

"Okay, if you ever find an attacker on top of you straighten your arms and..."

Winston then adjusts himself, "Don't put your thumbs inside just everything up."

"Well done Angel! Now shrimp."

While I'm holding him back I roll onto my left hip and my hands on his elbows. I put my left foot on his hip. I come back to the center and put my other foot on his other hip and he's off balance. He pulls away then my hands quickly move down to his wrists and I kick near his face slowly."

Winston rolls, springs up, grabs his water bottle and tells me proudly, "Great job Angel! Now it's your turn Ashley!"

Ashley repeated what I did only faster.

Winston is very impressed with her, "Oh my gosh that was so good! I hear you're still slaying in cheer."

"You know it!"

We then have to inward crescent kick 30 times per leg then 40 per hand with basic jabs, using force from the side of our bodies.

Yay Abby's here! Who's the old bald guy in the orange gi? He runs the Shaolin Temple wow this just keeps getting better.

She tells us, "Mind if we join you guys?"

The old man and Winston bow to each other but Winston bows deeper.

Winston smiles and warmly greets him, "How is everything? It's so good seeing you again! Did Mondatta like your temple in Shenzhen?"

The old man sighs looking Winston in the eye, "Ugh! Don't even get me started on Mondatta! He thinks he's something with his steel body! He called me a cheater for using his strength against him but like so many martial arts teach that, like hello!"

Winston frowns, "I'm so sorry to hear that. Are you staying at the Shaolin temple on the boulevard while you're here?"

"I am actually. You're teaching Gabe's niece and nephew quite well I see."

Winston's cheeks have a light flush to them, "Oh, I'm not really that smart! I'm not even sure if I'm teaching them right...I feel like such a fake! I'm only successful because I was lucky. Not many get to be raised by a top scientist from the moon you know."

"I understand my student, but you need to understand that you aren't a fake, you are…"

He notices Abby going into the kitchen.

"Abby! Get back here where the grownups can keep an eye on you!"

She shyly walks back into the room, her eyes quickly moving back and forth with her hands behind her back. She apologizes, "Sorry!"

The Shao Lin Master goes on, "No problem just please stay safe okay? Okay Winston, you're a scientist who has actually helped saved so many lives with Overwatch! I mean Gerard speaks highly of you! Oh my gosh he's getting married!"

"Gasp! Seriously? It's Amille isn't it? I so knew it you could cut their chemistry with a knife!"

The Shaolin Master kinda blushes, "I know right! She coordinates her purples and blues quite nicely as they go so well with her cool undertones. I heard Amille is taking lessons on how to hide her chi so yeah she's probably going to join Blackwatch after we get everything running again."

Winston's FaceTime projects onto the wall. It's a man with narrow gold rimmed glasses, light shoulder length medium blonde hair including a nicely trimmed yet thick goatee. And he's wearing a red sweater under a tweed jacket. Well it's summer in France too and air conditioning is always way too high everywhere.

"Hi Winston this is Gerard calling about my mission..."

Winston shows him a picture of a shiny lime green business suit with a business tie, "I found the perfect outfit for you!"

Gerard responds with pretend anger giggling a little, "Winston! That's not funny!"

"Now about my mission, there are these weirdo creeps stealing things! They kinda look like mixes between animals and people. There's also Talon activity in Brazil so I'm going there."

Winston responds, "Good luck and stay safe! I can't wait to be at your wedding!"

The Shaolin Master sits down on the floor meditating.

He says, in a calm teacherly tone to us smoothly moving his hands going from one direction to the other. "You must focus, and use your will, skill, and art! The chi flows through you, like water. Master that, and you master yourself."

Winston then smiles, warmly and fondly telling us, "Did you know he taught me martial arts? Isn't he amazing?"

He looks away and blushes, "Oh no I'm not!"

"Yeah you are! Wanna practice with me?"

"Okay."

He moves his left foot back squatting down, putting his left hand back his middle and pointy finger curled in a hook while his right hand is farther up, his body turned in a way where he's less open.

Huh why's Winston on his pho...oh, he's apparently entering a password to enter his true form again. Winston squats all the way down hopping around Abby's master like he's wearing springy shoes. Then they start punching and kicking each other. Winston rushes at him but the master pushes his hip against Winston and tosses him to the ground.

"Great Judo toss!"

They bow and continue. This time Winston is fighting more cautiously, his arms closer to his chest. He tries faking the master but he slides between his gorilla legs and when Winston turns to face him the master palm strikes him with both hands, left on top of right and his left leg behind him. He turns and Winston falls.

That, was, awesome! Ashley asks, "Oh my gosh like how do you even do it?"

He lifts up his chin adjusting his gi with both hands near the shoulders then tells us, "Winston is strong, I mean he is a gorilla after all! Aikido however uses the opponent's strength against them. If Winston humbles himself he might actually beat me."

Winston turns back into his human form and bows, "It was an honor to fight you again master."

We then start practicing. "Oh come on Abby please let me win verse you just once!"

"Nope!"

I hear someone parking is that mom?

I tell everyone. "We gotta dip, sorry! Training was really fun."

Mom brings us home and I practice guitar and poetry while Ashley takes private cheer lessons in the back yard.

We really don't like being forced into these lessons but I did like watching Winston and his sensei sparring. I wonder just how long they've been friends?

Jacob then text me, "Hi Angel! How was martial arts?"

"It was the best, thing, ever! Abby came over with her kung fu teacher and he and Winston had a match. And Abby kept beating me and Ashley in practice! I just wish we could play music instead."

"Wanna come over?"

"I'd love to!"

Ashley's excitedly yells from the other side of the living room, "Can I come too!"

"Yeah."

"Hold on I'm gonna call Isabella, aaahhh this is gonna be so funnn!"

Mom is on the phone, sitting in the kitchen eating avocado slices in her salad with a cup of oolong.

She tells whoever she's talking to, "I swear it's so hard working off all these pounds! No way she said what?!"

She's still on the phone, "It was nice talking to you too! Bye."

She looks back to us then Ashley asks rushing past me, "Mom can we go to Jacob's!"

"Since you've been good okay. Just make sure you don't lose your phones."

Ha you don't have to tell us!


	4. Chapter 4: The Call to Adventure!

I go into my room and wear black running shoes, a white short sleeved crewneck top with very little shape to it, knee length titanium gray gym shorts and I tightly tie the ribbon to keep my shorts from falling off, and I spray dry shampoo to keep my hair from getting in my face.

I ask Abby and ask her if she'll meet us at Jacob's then I ask Carlos.

Jacob and I are besties, he's always supportive of me and is always there for me whenever I need him. Although him making things up just to seem cooler gets kinda annoying. Carlos is quite a joker and a bit of a scaredy cat. And we're all going to play with Abby too yay!

Jacob then whispers to me when we're in his echoy garage, "Is everyone ready? Because if you are we are gonna have so much fun!"

I stare thoughtfully across the street through his open garage door. We really didn't do much martial arts practice today so I'm not really tired. "I'm ready!"

Ashley Isabella Abby and Carlos also raise their hands.

I then remember, "Ok you guys our phones have GPS we can't disable. They have parental controls so if we aren't here our parents will know it. May we leave our phones in your room?"

Jacob nods, "Yeah."

No phones! This is gonna feel so weird! I know we only had them for like a week but I already feel like something's missing from me. Too bad because I really wanted to take pictures of our time together. So much isn't gonna go on Instagram.

We ride our bikes wearing sunglasses. We all sweat so much from riding out bikes today is hot as usual.

Ugh it's Melissa what does she want? Just keep jumproping with your friends and pretend we don't exist please.

We all stop because we'd get in trouble running them over.

Melissa squints meanly at me leaning back. "Well if it isn't the smelly ditz face!"

Carlos looks down. "Sorry."

"Not you, him."

Of course she means me.

Melissa sounding annoyed looks at her friends then back at us. "I swear you and your sister. You're hair's so dry and icky like why would anyone wanna be your friend?"

Abby tells her comfortingly. "Your hair is good don't listen to her."

I say to her. "Hey don't talk about my sister that way. Why do you hate Overwatch so much they keep bad people from taking over the world."

"You really are an idiot aren't you Angel? My dad was in Talon! You guys think you're so amazing, like you're the only ones who count."

She leans over to pet her yellow lab puppy through the fence.

Melissa then stands back up leaning against the fence. "You guys will find out that Overwatch is just the worst."

Ashley tilts her head rolling her eyes. "Nuh uh it's good."

Uh oh looks like Ashley's getting ready to roast her. "Oh I'm Melissa I think Talon is so wonderful! I'm Melissa and I think being mean to everyone is fun because I'm a troll. I lie about people because I'm jealous of them."

Ashley tilts her head crossing her arms. "You can stop being mean to my brother anytime now!"

Melissa stretches her fingers and her mouth kinda curls. "You still like Silly Bandz?"

She giggles to her friend and points at Ashley's wrist. "Look girls she's wearing Silly

Bands! I bet you still buy Bobo Fiwa stuff too!"

I'm so tired of her right now. "Yeah real mature Melissa! You think you're too

mature for stuff meant for our age but Bobo has like the best bow making kit and still makes great songs! Ooo she's happy and isn't edgy so she must be too babyish!"

Ashley then tells her. "I know you still dance to her YouTube videos! I'm too nice to judge you for it though!"

Melissa shakes her head and walks away. "I'm done."

She looks back, why does she love hating me so much? "And Angel, your breath smells."

Isabella's nose wrinkles and raises her eyebrow a little and asks Ashley. "What's with her?"

One of her friends tells her. "He must be Angel! I bet the short one's his sister."

The other girl's eyes and mouth widen like she just had a great idea. "I know! Why can't we all play together!"

Melissa rolls her eyes. "You don't want them as friends. They're trouble."

An old lady comes out her door. "Oh you have more friends I see! Why didn't you tell me!"

"Grandma they're not my friends they're with Overwatch!"

"The world needs order kids and don't you forget it! Overwatch is just a bad influence on you guys!"

Melissa then says. "She's right you know. You'll learn someday."

Abby then says. "We don't have to deal with this, let's go!"

One of her friends yells to us. "It was nice meeting you!"

Well there was that mission Overwatch did in England where everyone hates omnics. But they were like bad omnics! It's the bad ones that make everyone else hate the good ones. If you wanna do good there are just times where you have to break rules. Their leader said no but Jack Morrison saved them anyway.

We're spying on Winston Genji and Reinhardt so I feel like we're going to be pretty safe.

We ride up the street to a gritty scary abandoned neighborhood.

Abby tells us. "I hear no homeless people come here because it's so dangerous."

Carlos is shaking, he grabs Jacob, rapidly blinking. "Do we really have to do this?"

Jacob tells him, "Oh yeah we do! Don't worry with me you're safe! Did I tell you guys about the time my dad was captured by pirates and I saved him all by myself because I know how to plan things and can punch like, really hard?"

Abby asks him skeptically, "Umm, no offense Jacob but...that didn't really happen, did it?"

Jacob's eyes shift left and right, then back down sighing, "No. I just wanted you guys to think I'm cool."

Ashley then says friendlily, "Don't worry Jacob we think you're cool."

She then points at an ugly building with shattered glass, "Let's hide in that rundown building. We can get a better view from its second floor there's no roof and missing a wall."

The dust overcomes us as we walk upstairs, being careful because of the loose wood.

I look out where a wall would be and there's nothing. We mostly just see next door's wall.

Abby then tells us, "Don't worry, cool stuff will happen soon."

We leave then walk down the street. I wonder if anything here is haunted? That'd be so cool!

Ashley puts her hand in front of my chest and whispers, "Shh! I hear someone."

We sneak into the house next to them and put our ears to the wall.

It sounds like Reinhardt, "And that's why we need to check it out instead of just rushing in."

Carlos looks impressed, "Wow that armored guy is like so cool!"

I tell him, "That's Reinhardt he works for Overwatch. He worked with my uncle and the dwarfy guy at my party."

Genji impatiently tells him, "Reinhardt but it might be too late and it's so obvious the omnics here are going to attack!"

Winston then tells him, "Genji, I know you're worried but we really don't wanna poke a hornet's nest if it isn't necessary. Are you with us on our plan?"

Genji calmly tells him, "Yes I agree. Our source did say omnics are acting funny though."

Winston then tells them, "I don't get it like why are homeless people weirdly missing from this place? So it's kinda funny there are no people here so I know something's up. But what?"

Abby touches my sleeve, "Angel we have to leave!"

We leave through a hole in the wall, Carlos is just barely small enough to fit and he waddles through.

Carlos then tells us, "Thanks for helping me up. Isn't it weird how like no one comes here?"

Jacob happily tells him, "I know right? We're so brave!"

Oh no who are those people? The lady in the weird mask kinda sounds like that no good Elona! Why does she hate us so much? "You know what to do. Overwatch won't be onto us if they think omnics are the problem. There's a secret omnium underground but it hasn't been making omnics in like forever. Still they have enough to be a threat."

A bald guy in a black duster tells her, "I have confusion darts just in case we see those stupid goody two shoe Overwatch brats!"

We leave, going through a nearby abandoned Coffee Bean and through the back door and go from abandoned houses to abandoned strip malls.

Carlos, shaking a bit, his shoulders hunched tells us, "Guys, I'm kinda creeped out."

I tell him, "We're here for you if you need anything.

Out of nowhere there's a big battle! We run down an alley but there's like nowhere to go!

Oh no please don't hurt us! The fluttering omnic fairy tells us, "This is no place for children you know! You're so lucky I'm the omnic you ran into, follow me."

We run but are so gassed from trying to catch up with her.

Ashley's hands are on her knees as she heavily breathes. "Ugh I'm so gassed!"

The fairy leads us onto a roof where we see Genji and Winston fighting on the street.

She blinds her big cartoony eyes, smiles, and tells us, "I'm Judith! Making friends feels so good doesn't it?"

I ask her, "Don't you have any friends at your omnium?"

"No...they actually don't like me because I want everyone to get along. But they're like nuh uh we're so much better than humans!"

"So they are planning an attack!"

"No, but these weird people in black robes keep wandering near us."

One of them must have been hit with a confusion dart.

Genji double jumps and kicks Winston down. As Winston in his gorilla form tries getting back up Genji kicks him down again. Winston's crying as he's lying on his side curling on the floor. "Why are you doing this to me?"

Genji angrily responds, "Because you think you're so much smarter than us! Nothing I ever do is good enough for you!"

"But Genji, I..."

Genji slaps him across the face, "Shut up!"

Winston grabs Genji's wrists, but then Genji puts his flat hands together, moves them down rotating them. Genji's hands are now facing Winston after he got free and he uses his back leg for extra power when he pushes Winston against a wall.

Ok we really have to find this jerk who confused Genji.

We go up and down streets and alleyways, and slime starts sparkling a color no one's ever seen before. Then it goes back to everything from overwhelmingly icky yellows to cool purples. How did slime fall out again I didn't even think I brought it?

We keep walking down the street. Umm, what's that? He's holding bouncy balls!

"I am BouncyBot! You kids picked a bad time to explore!"

He looks right at Abby, smirking while his eyes glow red. "Shouldn't you be girlier you girl?"

Abby then yells, "There isn't just one way to be a girl you know!"

Ashley and I look at each other, nod, and we run down an alley. Ow what the...? I fall down, turn onto my hip, Ashley and I ask each other if we're okay, and as I'm looking up I see a bouncy ball. Oh come on!

Isabella helps Ashley and Jacob helps me get up. We're about to run but Abby tells us, "Yeah...running away isn't going to work!"

BouncyBot says, "You got that right kids!"

He knocks us all down like we're bowling pins. We all get up and he knocks down Carlos by shooting the bouncy ball off his right hand, then he hits Isabella with the other one.

He's getting ready to run us over by turning into a ball again so Abby stands ready to kick. She's glowing blue, and kicks him like, really far!

"Lucky kiiiiiiiick!"

Abby flips her hair, smirks, and confidently says, "He's just a salty jellyfish."

Ashley's jaw drops, "I mean...like how? I glowed red and mom called three old guys to seal our powers!"

I thought of dad and how he would be disappointed in us in being here. We beat an omnic already this is so exciting for us!

Abby then says, "Of course. I hope I don't get sealed so let's keep my power secret okay?"

Ashley and I nod to her, "You have our promise!"

I'll never forget the day Ashley and I were sealed. Dad still insists that we're lucky that we can't expose our powers to Talon or the government but what does he know. All my life mom told me stories about dad and his Overwatch friends. I mean like yeah mom and dad care but why can't they ever be happy with what I wanna do? I wanna write poetry and play guitar, not work for Overwatch. Ashley wants to act and also be in a band with me.

Carlos rest against a wall breathing heavy. "My arm hurts. I hope we won't get kidnaped out here."

I tell him lowering my tone putting my hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry Carlos. We'll get through this together."

He looks into my eyes, "Thanks Angel. If I weren't such a fat coward I wouldn't be holding you guys back."

"You aren't a fat coward!"

Okay you are, but you'll stay sad if you think that. Honestly I'm scared too friend.

Carlos adjusts his shirt collar, looks down scratches the back of his neck and says. "No I am. Can you keep a secret Angel?"

"Of course I can I'm a good friend you know!"

Carlos shifts his eyes left and right. "I take my dad's phone to gift myself Hearthstone money."

"Carlos! I won't tell anyone but you really shouldn't be doing that!"

He sighs, looking like he feels bad. "I know I like shouldn't but I only take little amounts! I also have autism. You don't hate me now do you?"

"Of course I don't hate you!"

Then I remember we're on a mission. Heat ripples off the blacktop, trash gets caught on weeds growing out of cracks in the streets. "Actually, I'm afraid too. I didn't think there'd be this much trouble I just wanted us to see if we could help Overwatch but now I know they need us if they knew we were here it'd like change everything and them knowing we're here would make everything worse and that's why we have to do something about dart guy and find the cure!"

Isabella hunches and sighs deeply, "Winston isn't going to last long enough for us to help him."

Ashley tells her, "Don't say that my bestie! Our big furry friend needs us!"

Abby and Jacob nod.

Then Abby tells us after wiping her forehead. "Sigh, mom said this used to be so much better as a human neighborhood."

Ashley then tells her. "We should look up how this place got like this. Like everyone says omnics but I feel like it's something else."

We go inside an abandoned restaurant with unopened water bottles. Carlos rushes to them and chugs it. Isabella is looking at him like he's so gross.

She yells to him, "Eww that's so gross! We don't even know how old that is!"

Jacob looks down to him, as Carlos is on one knee, "Yeah fam it is kinda gross...Gimme one of those!"

Ashley and I look at each other facepalming.

Uh oh another big omnic! He's like Winston's height and has tires for feet and missiles on his shoulders!

"According to my calculations you're in big trouble losers!"

Carlos glows fire orange putting up a wall of fire destroying the rockets.

Carlos's hands are on his knees as he deeply huffs and puffs, "Wow how did I even do that?"

Ashley looks over to him, "It looks like you have the gift like we do!"

Abby looks at her, "I didn't see you do anything yet."

"That's because our powers are sealed ok!"

Jacob then tells us, "I believe you."

Abby then says, "Umm, guys, he's still alive!"

We run away, but he catches up. Isabella floats, glowing light pink. She shoots a magical laser at him then sits on her knees breathing, "Oh my gosh that was like, so amazing!"

And kinda scary. I ask her, "Are you okay?"

"I'm a bit gassed but this is super fun you guys!"

Abby runs to him and kicks him in the knee then Jacob and I struggle trying to push him away. Ashley runs and jumps knocking him down kicking him in his face.

The robot yells, "Get up! Ugh, you won't get away with this!"

Isabella yells back singingly, "Yes we wi-ill!"

Carlos looks afraid, I tell him. "Are you ok? We have to go come on."

I said that harsher than I wanted. I hope I didn't offend Carlos if my tone was too harsh. If we take too long then Winston might die we need to help him, but I really don't like seeing Carlos this scared.

As we walk Carlos tells me. "I'm scared but you guys made it sound so fun! I'm having fun but you know, omnics and everything. And I have to help dad with our lawn tomorrow. While I enjoy spending time with him I don't like doing all that work for so long. Oh my gosh grandpa will be so sad if I don't answer his text!"

Isabella tells him. "The one in Inglewood? When we're done here we come up with an excuse for you."

Ashley then tells Carlos. "Hmm, you were in our pool and you couldn't answer because it froze!"

I tell Ashley. "Or we can say Dean stole it! Gosh I hate that guy!"

After taking a left past a very tall dead sweet gum, another left past yet another creepy abandoned strip mall with so much sharp broken glass and pieces of street everywhere, and straight ahead we reach a diner looking place.

Carlos tells us, "I know that head, look!"

Yep, it's him!

We see the scary dart guy and everyone agrees to stay back, standing where they can help if I get in trouble. They're close enough to an exit so they can just go.

Ashley whispers for us to huddle. "Okay, I'm going to pickpocket him because I'm the smallest so I can hide better."

Ashley squats down, moving carefully as she steps staying as quiet as possible. No sis there's a metal sheet, oh good she didn't step on it. She's walking slowly on her toes. Come on sis I know you can avoid everything noisy! She ducks, then slowly peaks up again. She pickpockets his dart gun, but he evilly glares down at her.

"What do you think you're doing runt!"

He tries grabbing her wrist but she turns it and it slips out of his hand just in time.

We run farther down the street and Judith leads us through a certain path.

Carlos breathing heavy says. "Don't worry guys he'll get me first because I'm such a pudge monster."

I look over to him. "Carlos don't ever think that about yourself!"

Carlos smiles wiping his forehead. "He's in Talon so I don't think he has a problem with hitting a special needs kid like me."

Jacob looks behind him and throws a blue energy down and the bald guy slips.

"You won't get away with this you bratty idiots!"

Jacob does the BlocBoy JB shoot dance.

Abby tugs on his sleeve saying to him. "Come on Jacob we have to go!"

As we run she then tells him, "There is such a thing as being a sore winner you know."

Then he says in an annoyed tone. "There's no need to be so annoying! My parents don't think I can handle it out here but you all saw I can."

This neighborhood is like such a maze it's so frustrating! We run at the end of a circle but so many fallen trees and walls of destroyed houses get in our way. We then go over a fallen fence near the end of the circle then we crawl over house debris onto a roof. Then we reach a parking lot and see dead palms and a fallen Subway sign.

Abby looks at me, disappointed. "There's nothing here, let's cross."

We reach a big empty eerie parking lot with a fallen Ralph's sigh and dead palm trees and bushes. There are cracks in it and the sidewalks with broken glass in places. Is one of those very sticky purple flower trees still alive in an abandoned yard?

I hear Reinhardt! He's smashing omnics with his hammer and Judith whispers to us, "They aren't from my omnium."

The bald guy in the black duster yells, "Get back here you little bratty dunces! I want my dart gun back!"

Reinhardt yells to the bald guy, "I found you, you idiot loser!" He desperately pushes us out of the way to get away from Rein.

The police are watching this neighborhood so we have to be extra careful. Overwatch helping people is illegal so I hope Rein Winston and Genji aren't caught.

I know she's Elona that mask doesn't fool me! "Well well well...I know you! It's such a pity your gifts were sealed!"

Judith tells her, "That outfit is such a pity! There's like no face on that mask!"

Ashley laughs with her, "I know right! She thinks she's so edgy dressed like that!"

"It's practical okay!"

Then she continues, "If you must know my mask is like a two way mirror made of steel."

Ashley slyly smirks like she's gonna roast someone hard, "Your outfit's shapeless cuts makes you look frumpy."

"And I should care why you little brat?" She's charging a scary black and red energy ball. Right before it hits us she disappears cackling.

Carlos worriedly yells, "Oh no! She's invisible help!"

Abby then says, "Looks like we have bigger problems run!"

Little omnics are chasing us but Judith says, "Don't worry I know the way back."

Ashley says, "I'm scared too, but I feel like I can help."

She back handsprings and cartwheels, the omnics crash into each other.

Jacob says, "Sigh we won't have to worry about them anymore!"

I turn my head as we run and I notice a strange lime green glow. Judith worriedly says, "Do you really think we should go down there?"

Ashley tells her, "I'm afraid so. Who knows Genji's cure could be down there!"

It looks like it used to be a store. The dusty smell is already getting to me.

Judith looks back to us, "We're close to a secret entrance to my omnium. Gosh I hate that place! Careful, they don't like humans."

We go down a dark stairway careful not to make too much noise.

Judith then says, "The omnium is this way." She looks around worriedly, "I hope we don't have to...get too close!"

This place feels so creepy! It's even dustier than upstairs.

Jacob then notices and points to Elona talking to omnics. They're so up to no good!

Judith whispers to us, "No offense but there's no way we could beat her, even if she's by herself. I should be able to carry the glass thingy the antidote is in."

She flies low then when cover ran out she flies up to a pipe using it as cover. She is hovering near Elona's belt and using her robot fairy reflexes quickly lifts the glass thingy.

We leave before anything bad happens.

We rush back onto the roof we saw Winston and Genji and Genji is still throwing Winston fighting in the street. He tries getting up and hitting him but it just isn't working.

Abby yells to him, "Winston I know you can do it! Remember you have to use his strength against him!"

Winston yells to us, "What are you kids doing here!"

I yell to him, "We were just looking for adventure we're sorry!"

Just as Genji throws a punch Winston confidently smirks as he stands wide, one foot farther back, defensively positioning his hands. Genji tries punching him but Winston slaps Genji's fist as he moves the side of his body. Winston then kicks Genji's knee with his right foot. Winston keeps using Genji's momentum against him and grabs his wrist after it came up, walked behind him, and twisted Genji to the ground.

I rush over and cure Genji's confusion poison.

His visor slowly turns off then on again, it's his cyborgy way of blinking.

"Ugh!" He wipes his forehead.

"What has gotten into me today?"

Winston then gave him a big hug, "You're back to normal yay! I was wondering why you were hitting me. It just isn't like you. Good thing I know how to use someone's strength against them!"

Reinhardt then joins us. "Everything turned out okay!"

BouncyBot wipes off his mouth, looking so sure he can beat us this time. His sharp teeth smiles threateningly. Even if he's stronger this time we have a guy with a mallet with us!"

Reinhardt then asks, "What is that?"

Isabella then tells him, "Oh nothing, just an ignorant loser."

BouncyBot's eyes glow red, "This time you won't have enough power to stop me!"

The adults are off to our sides so I don't think he can't see them. Carlos dives into a pile of trash bags covering his face, and everyone's energy is still so low.

Genji leaps in front of us as BouncyBot falls and Genji bicycle kicks him. He isn't even glowing so that's all strength on Genji's part.

He yells flying away, "I'll get you all next time!"

Abby excitedly whispers to us, "Did you know he and his brother won the world cup for Japan?"

Carlos's eyes widen, "That's so cool! A soccer legend and a cyborg ninja!?"

Genji looks down to him, nods, and says, "Yep."

Aaaahhh he spoke to us! Makes me feel giddy.

Now there are three of those big rocket omnics! "Oh you are all so dead!"

Carlos tells everyone, "Do I look like I'm laughing? I'm terrified!"

I feel myself shaking and I tell Ashley, "Sis...I'm afraid!"

As we all look at each other waiting to die I see Genji throw stars at one, dash to another flipping over it also throwing stars, then he kicks one in the stomach then grabs it by the wrist twisting it, and pushes him into his friends. Oh my gosh Genji took them all out without using his gift! Seriously!? We all had trouble with just one of those things!

Abby, relieved yet worried says, "I'm so tired! I hope our bikes are where we left them."

Winston transforms back into his human disguise then says, "Hopefully the cops won't be there. We violated the Petras Act so forget the bikes if you see a cop car okay?"


	5. Chapter 5: We're in Serious Trouble

We bike back to Jacob's house. Uh oh it's our parents!

I whisper to Ashley. "Sis I'm scared!"

Then I tell Jacob. "I hope you aren't gonna get in trouble because of us!"

Uh oh! Mom looks so mad! She slowly shakes her head back and forth thinning her mouth. "What's with you two! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is?! And you're so filthy! You're showering when we get home!"

I scratch the back of my head looking down shamefully. "Sorry mom, I just wanted to see and help dad's friends..."

Mom then continues. "Your uncle was head of Blackwatch, his job was dealing with very bad people yet he died anyway!"

She walks closer to us, but we're too scared to walk back, "Is said to have been where you were. There were reports of explosions and a big fight! Why do you think there aren't any homeless in any of those empty houses?"

Jacob's mom comes out with witch hazel and cotton pads. She squats down looking at Jacob's knees making painful faces, "Oooohhh, yeah that's not good." She then puts Neosporin on a Kuu Kuu Harajuku band aid for Izzie Abby and I and Minions band aids for the boys.

Abby tells her, "Kuu Kuu Harajuku, really?

"You know your little sister loves that show.

Reinhardt walks in through the garage, "Alyssa...As much as I don't wanna admit it, we really couldn't have done our job without them."

"Oh yeah? How would you feel if they got killed?"

Reinhardt looks down at his metal boots, "Umm, sad?"

"That's right! You should have called me!"

Dad walks in from the house, "I'm really disappointed in you kids."

Reinhardt tells him, "But Abe they saved Genji!"

Dad sternly tells us, "Your mother and I have agreed on your punishment, no phone and no visiting friends for 3 days!"

Ashley gasped then sounding surprised said, "Three days! That's like forever!"

Then I tell them. "We'll wither away and die without our phones! Please!"

Mom crosses her arms scowling, "You should have thought of that!"

Uh oh Dad looks serious. "If you cared so much about dying then you wouldn't have gone where you did! Seriously Angel even the homeless avoid it because the omnics make it so bad!"

I say as I walk to the door, "I guess this means no more studying or martial arts practice? Too bad."

Mom crosses her arms narrowing her eyes as she has an oh nice try tone, "Oh no you'll still study! You have 3rd grade next month so you better be ready!"

Jacob puts his hand on my shoulder, "Sorry. It was lit how we helped them though huh?"

I smile and warmly tell him, "Yeah but we're still in trouble."

Mom still angry and disappointed with us says, "So you really think it's cool making your parents worry like that? What if Reaper was there?! He can't die like ever you know!"

Mom looks up with her eyes closed and arms still crossed. Uh oh she like looks way too peaceful! She calmly says, "You know my children, I have another punishment in store...I'm going to play Ed Sheeran and Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line all day starting tomorrow!"

Ashley and I look at each other mortified, "No not them!"

Jacob's mom then says with her arms crossed, "You're also grounded! I might even tell people you like them!"

Jacob's mouth drops, "Please mom people will make fun of me if they think I like that crap!"

"There's no need to get salty with me. Behave and I won't okay?"

Mom points her nose to our van. "It's time for us to go, and you have so much laundry!"

Ashley worriedly looks up to her, blinks twice and ask, "Will we get an allowance?"

Dad cackles with glee, "Ha! You wish! College will be your allowance money! Overwatch wouldn't give your uncle Gabe and me a second look if we never went to college you know!"

Ashley rolls her eyes. "Ugh, we know."

Mom then looks down. "Don't you roll your eyes at me missy!"

Ashley looks at her athletic shoes, and frowning back up to mom, "So does this mean no more cheerleading practice? I could really use the rest."

Mom lifts her chin, resting her hand on her hips proudly declaring. "Good news! Nope!"

Ashley tilts her head, blinks, or winks I can't really tell standing to her side, and kinda looks confused. Mom tells her. "You see Ashley we're Americans! Not only is cheerleading a cultural tradition in our country but it will help you get into a good college. You're slaying it like so hard in the youth league! Before even my time people had to balance between competitive and school cheer! Some even had to choose between one or the other!"

Ashley asks, "In other words I'm lucky we can do both?"

"Exactly!"

"Can I still make cheer tracks?"

"You can when your punishment is over."

Isabella warmly tells her, "Well, it was worth a try bestie."

A gorgeous sparkly hot pink hybrid parks, and a tall thin lady with an amazing off shoulder pink top, long wavy dirty blonde hair, sunglasses, and fingertip length shorts walks up. She's definitely Isabella's mom I can so see the resemblance.

She squats down eye level to Isabella telling her sharply, "You're in deep trouble miss!"

The three old guys that sealed our powers drive up next.

The purple one sighs, "It looks like you guys got into quite the trouble!"

Jacob throws himself on the floor, "Mom! The old guys wanna take our magic away! Tell them to get lost!"

The gray one smirks, his fingers interlocked, "Ha! Who do you think called us here?"

Abby then tells him as we're all walking to Jacob's backyard, "Oh come on without our powers Genji would still be a bad guy we literally did so much to get him back to normal!"

Reinhardt tells her, "We're very proud of you guys but if people know you have powers it'll make you guys targets. You understand, right? Witches like us simply cannot be exposed you know!"

I wake up, say good morning to Ashley eating her buckwheat waffles, and mom is hanging up a sign saying we don't talk religion or politics here.

I ask her why and she says, "McCree is coming over! He's a big Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line fan you know. I don't like country either."

We hear "Little lungs in a great big world" playing outside then McCree yelling. "Fer the last time YouTube I ain't gonna quit smoking okay!?"

He knocks, tips his hat, and says, "Howdy! Is Abe home?"

"He sure is!"

Dad greets McCree shaking his hand.

Dad excitedly asks, "So how's Mercy?"

McCree bashfully scratches the back of his head, his cheeks flushing. "Oh she's umm, you know. She's not my girlfriend!"

Dad gently elbows his chest, "Don't lie to me Jesse, I've seen you two on each other's Instagram pics kissing."

McCree bashfully responds with his hat over his face, hiding his blush, "Aww chucks! Okay fam, you caught us!"

Mom joins in, she playfully smirks as her eyes narrow, "Did you guys French?"

McCree nervously says, "Umm, I don't know how to answer that!"

Dad whispers to mom, "They sure did!"

She touches her phone a few times and all our speakers play Florida Georgia Line oh gosh please make it stop already!

McCree is kinda blushing, then he mentions, "Did you know Angela Ziegler is descended from Mackenzie Ziegler?"

No way!

McCree puts his suitcase down and opens it, looking down at his daffodil yellow swim shorts with saguaro cacti and cowboy hats on it.

Ashley's walking to her room and says, "I'm swimming too."

Mom tells her, "Oh no you're not you're still grounded miss!"

Ashley looks at her, frowns and hunches letting out a sigh, "Fine."

We stare out the back window together watching as dad and McCree swim.

Ashley looks at me and asks, "So how do you think dad and McCree know each other?"

I tell her, "I feel like he worked more with our uncle. Remember when dad told us about the cowboy uncle Reyes saved from being in a gang? I think that's him."

"Why was he in a gang?"

"I think it's because he needed money to help his mom."

Uncle Reyes...dad said he was like way successful. Not only did he actually join Overwatch but he led Blackwatch. I think McCree was with him. I might ask him about it later but I don't want him feeling sad because I reminded him of his friend. Even to this day Jack Morrison doesn't wanna talk about it. Since he isn't here I think he's on a mission, but where? Maybe he's chasing that no good troublemaker Reaper, too bad my uncle can't help him with that.

I slide the glass door open and McCree worriedly says, "Jayla tells me omnics are planning another attack, but we don't know from where."

Dad responds, "I'm worried about it too. Remember how much fun we all used to have at Blackwatch?"

"I do, but I also remember how scary our missions were?"

"Yeah. Between you and me I think Reaper was behind killing my brother..."

Dad looks at me, "The pool is off limits when you're grounded!"

Why don't they ever want us having fun?

Reinhardt and his wife, Torb, and Genji visit too. Dad greets them. I really love how they don't greet with obviously fake and cringey greetings. I so hate whenever I try talking and they go back to hello even after I said hey. It's even worse whenever I can't use a grownup's first name or even talk to them.

They've been sitting on the couch talking for 15 minutes now. I pace between the living room, dining room, and kitchen but they should know I wanna sit.

Ashley looks over to me, "It's your house if you wanna sit just say so!"

Reinhardt gasp, "Do you two wanna sit? I can take the floor if you want."

"You don't have to."

"Really Angel I wouldn't mind."

He sits on the floor and tells us a story. "This knight apron I have was my fathers, and his, and his, and so on."

Ashley sounds curious and looks at him, "I don't get it, why not just buy a new apron instead of getting hand me downs? My friend Trang's little brother gets made fun of for wearing Trang's hand me downs."

Reinhardt laughs, "Oh you kids! So how's Bridget been Torb?"

"I'm so glad you asked me! She's getting straight A's in all of her classes and she's either field hockey or lacrosse captain depending on the season."

McCree then asks him, "Is she with her mom?"

Torb answers proudly, "She is actually. They're vacationing in Cambodia. It's like way humid there although it's still kinda pretty."

Reinhardt's wife then tells me, "I can smell the barbeque from here. Your father is quite the cook."

She looks down, then warmly says, "Rein and I remember your uncle Gabe quite fondly. He'd do absolutely anything for your ant and cousins!"

Torb then says, "I know what you mean. Like so many of our friends and employees died and so many civilians too. This is why we continue fighting!"

I wonder if Reinhardt will let me do pull ups on his arms. "Hey Rein! Can I use your arms for pullups?"

This is so cool!

Reinhardt coughs, takes a sip of his dark chocolate protein shake, and looks like he's going to tell us a story! I'm listening. "Did I ever tell you kids about the time I was on a planet of giants? Winston and I took his spaceship to a galaxy 40 minutes away. We felt so vulnerable and everyone there thought we were cute! We hated it like so much you have no idea! Like what about my tough manly apron and thick armor says cute?"

Wow Reinhardt was somewhere where he was small!? That's so funny!

He takes a wasabi rice cracker and sips his water then continues telling us. "Anyway the flowers were like as tall as our palms and they were so pretty! There were even colors there that don't exist here on Earth! Winston and I shopped for clothes and because I'm so massive I have trouble on Earth anyway on that planet they were sooo different! I actually had to buy pants they labeled petite and actually needed to hem or cuff them! I even had to find spaces between people to see anything if there was a crowd!"

Dad yells to everyone, "Food's ready!

They walk out to our backyard because the foods ready. Just as I'm going to walk with them mom says, "Oh no! You aren't having any barbeque! Wash down your grape nuts with bottled water. And no soy sauce on your vermicelli! Kids shouldn't eat that much sodium anyway!"

Grape nuts are so dry and hard! Life is so unfair!

The next day mom goes to the beauty salon she owns so it's just us and dad. We help him with chores.

As I'm washing the table and Ashley washes the fridge dad from dusting the living room cabinets tells us, "You're lucky to have parents like us you know! Most parents baby their kids and treat them like they're stupid."

Ashley then responds, "Like you're any better? You lock us out of so much!"

Dad smirks, "That's because there are things an 8 year old shouldn't be doing on a phone."

He moves into the kitchen continuing the conversation unloading the dishwasher. "You actually don't know how good you have it. We aren't afraid of everything unlike other parents. We actually care about your future too."

I stand on a stepstool wiping inside the kitchen cabinets. "So dad why don't characters ever swear on kid shows? It's really weird!"

"Because studios would get in big trouble like they have to follow stupid rules just to show them at certain times."

I hear mom tease Ashley. "Aliyah called you! Too bad you're punished Ash!"

After our punishment ends I look at my autographed Genji soccer ball, I'm still happy we saved him but finally getting our phones back is so awesome!

We all have a sleepover and make friendship bracelets for each other. The next morning I found my house TP'ed and spray chalk written in our driveway saying, "Friend thief!"

I tilt and scratch my head looking to Ashley. She says. "That's not Isabella's writing so I know it isn't her."

A boy wearing jeans and a leather jacket crossing his arms with his friend wearing thick glasses walks towards us.

"So you're the ones who stole Carlos from us huh?"

Carlos looks confused and shrugs. "What did I do?"

"Don't play dumb with me! What's so great about them where you can tell them anything but not me? I thought we were close!"

"But Dean! I…I just…"

The nerdy looking boy then interrupts. "You know you could have invited us to your little mission right?"

Carlos paces in our driveway.

I tell them. "Carlos doesn't need you okay!"

Dean then tells me, "Oh yeah I bet he likes us more!"

I cross my arms smiling. "Oh yeah! If he liked you better then why did he come with us instead?"

Ashley speaks, crossing her arms saying teasingly. "Hmm, if he really was your friend then why didn't you invite him to Ryan's party?"

Isabella then says. "I know right! Isn't it funny you only want to hang with Carlos whenever you want to use or laugh at him!"

Dean backs away. "That…that's not true you know!"

Carlos is sitting on the curb, his head in his hands crying. "I thought you guys liked me! And you can't come to my birthday party!"

Dean and Ryan then glare at me. "This isn't over, Angel! It's all your fault that Carlos doesn't like us anymore!"

Dean rides a red bike and Ryan rides a dark blue bike away from us.


End file.
